Stumbling
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: After the boys depart at the end of 'Dark Matter' the girls go for a drink.


They were both already dressed up after all, Laura had been on a high after the concert and Jean actually had a night off for once. The drink afterwards had seemed like a good idea at the time.

It hadn't been. It had been ridiculously awkward and within the first five minutes they had realised that this was the first time in their entire acquaintance that they had been alone together. Conversation was stilted:

_("I think the boys have liked having your help this week."_

"_Of course the work I usually do is completely frivolous. And the what feels like two hundred hours a week I spend in that lab is pointless."_

"_I'm terribly sorry if we've taken up your valuable time Doctor. Perhaps in future we should consider compensating you with a wage?")_

Eye-contact was not becoming and both of them found it deeply annoying that they apparently needed the boys present as a buffer.

So they drank more. Jean's wine glasses got bigger and Laura's spirit intake doubled. Conversation became significantly more agreeable:

_("I thought your playing was wonderful tonight by the way."_

"_By the sound of it you lot were too busy playing with guns to notice."_

"_Well, I was outside. I heard and I thought it was lovely.")_

They had chosen a pricier bar in the faint hope that the cost might keep the students away – it turned out that this had been hoping in vain.

_("This is Oxford," Laura reminded her companion. Jean accepted her wisdom; the Doctor had attended these hallowed halls after all. She hadn't, and like Lewis she was secretly a little bit proud of this fact. _

"_Bloody Oxford.")_

They left the bar stumbling noticeably but not embarrassingly. The steady rise in friendliness they had managed through the night continued.

_("Can I walk you home?")_

Shocked Laura could only nod vaguely. They walked. They stumbled. Laura very nearly caused herself an injury when she mistook the distance between the road and the pavement, but luckily Jean grabbed her by the hand and steadier her. Jean neglected to let go of her hand afterwards and it wasn't until they were crossing Magdalen Bridge that Laura properly noticed.

Going passed the off-licence Laura briefly ran inside, returning with the first bottle of wine she had seen.

_("You'll come in for a drink won't you?")_

She felt awkward. Knew it would be odd if she took Jean's hand again but she had liked the contact so she settled for linking her arm with the other woman's like she sometimes did with Robbie. The lack of height difference made it easier and in the back of her mind Laura considered whether she should start wearing high heels again when she walked with Robbie.

Despite the fact that they know the night is going to continue with the wine bottle inside Laura's house, when they're on her front step and she's fiddling with her handbag looking for keys Jean kisses her. She's shocked at first because usually tentative kisses like this at the end of what you realised too late had, in essence, being a first date are supposed to come just then. At the end.

Laura pushed open the door with her foot wondering when exactly she had found a better use for her arms.

They were inside and the awkwardness was returning. In the hall they kicked off shoes and coats. In the living room the bottle became the focal point. Laura lit the fire (not really cold but certainly goose pimply), invited Jean to put some music on (sodding Puccini of all things), then realised what she had inadvertently turned her living room into. They both knew where this was going.

_("Excuse me just a minute.")_

Laura tried to look controlled and sexy on the stairs. The second she was sure she had left Jean's eye line she scrambled into her bedroom, throwing under the bed and into the wardrobe all the random odds and ends she had tried on earlier that night, despite having decided that this was the perfect dress two weeks ago. Glancing around for a final time she thought there was little more she could do to make it presentable.

She returned to the living room. Jean was swiftly draining her glass.

_("If you need that much Dutch courage perhaps this is a bad idea."_

"_It's celebration not fortification.")_

And Jean was kissing her again. With all the passion of a woman that had been contained for too long – Laura certainly knew about that. She ran her hands over Jean's waist pretending that she was caressing the fabric.

_("You do look lovely by the way.")_

One hand on her waist, the other in her hair. Softer than it looks and she looks so much softer when it's down. The stairs seemed an insurmountable obstacle so they fell back onto the sofa.

Jean learns quickly that being especially slow is not necessary. Romance aside they're both practical women and need overcomes everything. So she slides black straps off pale shoulders and somehow senses that her tights have already torn from the friction. Laura's dress goes down as her own comes riding up, and they smile as their dresses hit the ground at the same time.

When Jean opens her eyes the first thing she notices is their dresses still crumpled together on the floor, her lilac standing out from Laura's deep black and all she can think is that she's going to have to walk home in last night's formal wear, something she has never had to do in her life.

She can feel Laura's skin hard against her own, the Doctor is still asleep and is yet to grow self-conscious and so has an arm wrapped around Jean's waist still, holding her close.

When she wakes up they'll be awkward again:

_("I have a husband."_

"_Is he still in the picture though?")_

Somehow, somehow Jean manages to disentangle herself without waking up Laura. She basically falls off the sofa but doesn't make any noise. Without getting up she locates and pulls on her underwear, grabs her dress, still on her knees she kisses the other woman softly. She dresses, she collects shoes and coat and opens the door to leave.

She reconsiders. Undressing is easier but much less fun on her own. She's careful to put things back where they fell, wary of a pathologist's eagle eye for detail. It's too difficult to get back on the sofa so she wraps one of the several throws that Laura has in her living room around herself and slips into the kitchen.

When Laura opens her eyes she is greeted by a hot mug of coffee and a comfortable smile.


End file.
